Highest birth rate

Yemen (1985) with 8.86 babies per woman

Lowest birth rate

South Korea (2020) with 0.81 babies per woman

Central Africa is the highest contributor of new births worldwide

Map showing the change in number of babies per woman over time across all countries of the world. The number of babies per woman was high (5-8) in most of the world in 1920, expept for North America, Europe and Australia. Over the course of 100 years, this number decreased in almost all countries, with central Africa being the region with the highest birth rate.

Sub-Saharan Africa has double the birth rate as America

Countries were grouped into six regions, and the number of babies per woman averaged per region by year. Although all six regions show a decrease in birth rate from 1920 to 2020, Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the highest average rate.

Highest daily income

Brunei (1979) with 172.0 average daily income

Lowest daily income

Eswatini (1950) with 0.246 average daily income

Income remains low in central Africa over time

Map showing the change in income over time across all countries of the world. Notice that central Africa has the lowest change in income over 100 years, and North America, Europe and Australia remain the countries with the highest income throughout the century, with the addition of Gulf states starting around the late 1960s due to the oil industry. Note that the income scale limit is set to 30 for better visual comparison between Sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world. It is not meant to compare two high income countries, as any income above 30 will have the same color on the map.

Lowest in come in two regions, including Sub-Saharan Africa

Countries were grouped into six regions, and the daily income averaged per region by year. This plot shows the change in average income over time in six regions of the world. Income is shown to increase in some regions more than others, with Sub-Saharan Africa having the least increase in income.

High daily income (USD) is associated with low birth rate

Data points were plotted regardless of which year they refer to (i.e. they are not in chronological order). The plot shows ther there is a general trend where higher income is associated with a low number of babies per woman, regardless of historical time. Exceptinos to this trend include Qatar, Kuwait, UAE, Brunai, and Equatorial Guinea.

Income and birth rate move in opposite directions

The change in number of babies per woman over time was plotted alongside the change in daily income. This figure shows that in almost all regions, as the daily income increases over the years, the number of babies per women decreases, with the notable exception of Sub-Saharan Africa, in which there does not seem to be a noticeable increase in income, and the number of babies per woman has not noticeably decreased as it has in other regions.

Combined dataset

Dataset with number of babies per woman, average daily income, and regions combined into a single dataset from which all figures were generated.

Combined Dataset
country country_code year income babies four_regions six_regions eight_regions
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Raw data

Data were downloaded from Gapminder at https://www.gapminder.org/data/. Specifically, you can find more information on each dataset and download the raw data using the following links:

Conclusions

Though Sub-Saharan Africa is highly rich in natural resources, it remains the region with the lowest average daily income over the course of a century. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, it has the highest number of babies per woman compared to any other region, a feature that many high-income regions are struggling with and are having a difficult time catching up.